ESB Boba Build (WIP)

[Jesuit24]

I joined this community two years ago with my mind set on scratch building a budget Boba costume. I completed it the beginning of this year and have been overwhelmed by the attention and support I received both here on the boards when I was making it and afterwards at the conventions I wore it to. In the past, I've been a bit of a build it and leave it cosplayer; having maybe two outings in the costume before I retire it. With Boba, it's going on three conventions and the movie premiere with Celebration next year to look forward to. So it's safe to say Boba is here to stay for me. But after my blaster snapped at the grip, one of my knee pads cracked for the tenth time and a gauntlet switch broke loose at the premiere screening, I'm looking for a sturdier costume, a more screen accurate one and one more comfortable. I'm immensely proud of the costume I have, but I see this as a chance to upgrade to decent bought pieces that should last a bit longer (and I'm also planning on switching from SE to ESB). The process is going to be slow due to funds, and I'll stick with my SE in the mean time, but I'm excited.

Now I have a question. I'm a short skinny guy at 5'6" weighing 130lbs, leaving me needing everything to be small. For helmet sizes that leaves me with the GMH as the smallest accurate helmet I can get. What about armour? Is there an armour set that accommodates for smaller guys? I'm only a 34" chest, and my original armour that I made out of sinta used Raf's templates were scaled to 90% coming out looking like this:

Same thing for the jet pack and the gauntlets. Anything in the small range?

 

[Gregory]

I'm somewhat new to this but I can give some feedback. The scale of your chest armor looks about right to me. Maybe a little too rounded at the corners? Also, your flack vest is maybe too creamy colored, or needs weathering. Or is that a difference between editions? Gloves look too new also. I hope that's not too much unwanted critique. I made my armor from illustration board and, being 6'2", upsized it perhaps too much, so I know scale is tricky. I think that printing out templates and trying them out for scale is the way to go, if you can make your own stuff.

 

[Jesuit24]

I've finally made a start on my build. Got Fettpride v4 armour and it's a little bigger than my SE sintra armour, but definitely a better size for me. Started trimming but I'm going slow so I don't screw anything up. How does my thickness look? I know the consensus is 3mm, but it's difficult to tell where to start measuring on the beveled edge.

 

[Gregory]

I'm no expert, as Iike to point out, but it looks good to me.

 

[Jesuit24]

It's been quite a while since I did anything but it's that time of year again when there's a flurry of inspiration thanks to trailers for a certain film. The plan is to get the helmet finished for the premiere so I can still wear the SE edition but with a better helmet. Whether I finish in time is another story. I got a GMH a while ago from Skyfire and it's been sitting around for a while, but I've started work on it. Helmet prep is taking forever, mainly because of my troubles trying to get visor clips attached, but also because I'm being a perfectionist on converting the GMH to ESB. While waiting for the epoxy/JB Weld/Milliput to cure, I've been working on the ears.

Magnets have been added to the ear cap and housing, along with a magnet in the rangefinder stalk to ensure it stays upright when I want it to. I've also JB Welded nuts to the ears and trimmed some bolts for them.

I'm doing a topical paint job, but I also wanted to undercoat everything with the base paint scheme just so that if any paint rubs off from handling, it won't go straight through to the primer. I'm currently at the point of starting the detailed brush work.

 

[Ghost_Fett]

Can’t wait to see more. 5’6” Fetts stick together! Haha

 

[Jesuit24]

The helmet is ready for paint. I've added a wave to the brow, just by leaving a little extra resin behind when cutting the visor out and bondoing it out to the right thickness. Filled in all the PP damage and added the correct ESB damage. And I finally got the interior how I wanted it; two aluminium bars at the bottom with screws to hold the visor in place, the screen accurate visor clips and two chicago screws holding the visor in place at the temples.

Still working on the ears; got one left to finish. Here's a comparison between the old and new earcap.

 

[Jesuit24]

Ears finished. Using a bit of the visor for the bottom of the MQ-1 housing, thanks to a tip from intwenothor.

And the helmet has been primed. Still need to trim the bottom of the visor.

In terms of the visor, how close fitting to the mandibles should it be? I feel like I've got it as close as I expected but just wondering how close is too close and how much gap is too much gap. In my old helmet, I just hot-glued the visor in and filled the gap flush with coloured silicone caulk.

Here's some pictures of the helmet interior. Really pleased with how it's working now. The visor feels extremely secure and it's easy enough to remove. There are a couple extra holes in the sides for the inclusion of mics, which will act as my ears.

 

[Hames13]

Looking good! I’m also a short skinny Fett! The only thing that I did on a small scale was the armour. My scratch built Jetpack is a WoF template and full size I think and doesn’t look bad at all. Nice job so far!

 

[Artakha]

With my helmets I haven't been too concerned about the gap. As long as its not a huge gap (your helmet looks just fine) its impossible to notice unless someone's really staring at you from the side. I often like a gap as a way for a little air to come in.

 

[Jesuit24]

I've finished the rangefinder. I used a fettinator self contained light kit because the less batteries in the helmet the better. That proved to be an issue with the perspex block so I had to file it down considerably. I tried getting away with two pairs of magnets to hold it in place but it kept sagging so I added another set. The top of the block was covered in three layers of masking tape to help diffuse the white light from the LED.

 

[Jesuit24]

My Fettronics light kit came today so I cut out the slots for it. I'm a little indecisive about it. Here it is (obviously not properly attached or aligned in the photo)

The FP v4 armour is undersized but the kit is oversized. I followed Raf's blueprints to get the right amount of light showing (cutting off part of the last digit)

But in doing that the slots seem a little tall in comparison to the length. I could cut away more of the length to fully reveal the partially covered digit and bars which would help make it more proportioned, although that would mean making the chest lights even bigger on the small armour.
Thoughts?

 

[Fett 4 Real]

Rafals templates are for the correct size digits... the modern digits are NOT the correct size they are very slightly too large. So the template is a good starting point but doesn't work if you have the modern LEDs

 

[Jesuit24]

Yeah, I remember reading that the newer components are larger than the vintage ones.

After seeing this, I'm feeling better about the slots. Aside from being too tall on account of the large digits, the measurements are right give or take a couple mm.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

as long as you can see the numbers and the last ones cut off youre good bud.

 

[Jesuit24]

All the armour has been primed. Not sure why I went with yellow primer on the knees and shoulders. I guess I thought it would be a good base for the yellow and completely forgot about the silver layer.

I got knee darts from RS Propmasters a week ago and painted the rings.

 

[hvacdon]

Looking very nice J24 !!

 

[droidbait]

Awesome Jesuit!

 

[Jesuit24]

Thanks, guys. I hit everything with silver but first I'll focus on the yellow parts. First, I masked off the silver. I've been looking at other builds and it's strange to see not one is alike. When you consider the helmet, everyone has every scratch marked out perfectly and identically, but when it comes to armour there's a lot more interpretation. I followed Raf's templates but I still kinda freehanded the masking fluid on in order to line up the silver with the dents.

Once the silver was masked, I followed the Paint by Numbers thread, giving it a basecoat of Humbrol #74. I wasn't sure what this would accomplish, seeing as this it isn't a visible colour when it's finished, but given the weak consistency of the Humbrol yellows I think it was essential in blending the next layer together.

A couple layers of #154 went down next. I think the fluorescent lights in my garage are messing with the colours in the pictures since I'm a lot happier with it in person than these pictures. They look veeery vibrant here.

I've also made a video on the voice changer I'm using. Unfortunately, I need a better SD card if I want to make longer videos so rather than explain what I'm doing in detail in the video, here are the three results I've come up with. Which do you guys prefer? I feel like #1 is best when I'm talking naturally (it's so difficult to say Boba's lines without deepening my voice), yet if I try to put on the voice, then #2 sounds more accurate. For regular trooping where I find it impossible to speak in character, I think #1 will be the one. #3 kinda shows just how much the radio effect quietens and distorts the audio. Some people may prefer clearer audio so I've included it. Enjoy my shitty American accent:

#1:
Pitch Correct
> Type: Soft
> Scale: Maj(Min)
> Key: D
> Gender: -1
> Octave: -1oct
Tone/SFX
> Type: Radio

#2
Pitch Correct
> Type: Soft
> Scale: Maj(Min)
> Key: D
> Gender: 0
> Octave: -1oct
Tone/SFX
> Type: Radio

#3
Pitch Correct
> Type: Soft
> Scale: Maj(Min)
> Key: D
> Gender: -1
> Octave: -1oct
Tone/SFX: Off

Apparently the keys are what fine tune your voice but I can't tell the difference between them personally so I just set mine to D at random. Gender lowers/raises your pitch but I think most guys will stick to 0 for that. Lowering the octave is pretty cool; that gives you that gravel effect you can hear. For the first round of soundbites, I had the mic right against my lips. It overpowered my own voice easily although it peaked a few times. The last couple of goes, I moved the mic further away to where it would be placed in the helmet. It's a bit quiet there and you can hear a lot of my original voice, but I can tweak the mic sensitivity setting in the menu so I can boost that significantly later if needed.

 

[Jesuit24]

More paint on the yellow parts (excluding the left shoulder bell). I gradually built up with orange 82 and then went deeper with orange 132 over some of the weathered parts. I'm thinking of possibly adding some brown to blend the weathering slightly, and then I'll weather it with grey 79 and maybe a touch of black.